Woven Fabrics Make Beautiful Blocks

Warp and Weft by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr of Modern Quilt Studio debuted in early 2019. These fabrics are not your ordinary cottons that are surface dyed, but are wovens with colored threads. As soon as I saw them I knew just what I'd like to stitch with them. My tried and true "Yikes! Those Stripes" pattern is a go-to anytime there are fabrics such as these in my studio.

I featured these when they first came out and I came upon the blocks hanging in my closet the other day. I think I need to make some more. Let's see what I said about them 2+ years ago:

First, the fabrics. I separated out the clear colors (many brights) from the grays. I have plans for those grays - on another day.

Crayon colors from the Warp and Weft Collection

 

And I added the red plaid to the grays and darker blues:

Grays and blues with a single red from the Warp and Weft Collection

One thing I did notice about these fabrics is how soft to the touch they are! They have a lovely "hand," which means they feel good in my hand!

Now, let's see what I did. I first paired the colors as I thought I'd like to see them in each block. My plan is to make Hourglass Blocks using my quick piecing method, which I first published in Quilt Magazine about 25 years ago!

Six sets of paired colors 

I cut strips of each fabric and stitched a 1/4" seam. I offset one strip because I'm going to cut some triangles in the next photo. Offsetting gives me one more cut when I reach the end. 

Two strips, offset and stitched

Press toward one of the colors (doesn't matter) and then we start to cut. The cuts are 45 oops! I mean 90 degree angles. 

Cutting with an Omnigrid ruler

 Flip flop the ruler and cut the second wedge.

Two pieced wedges cut

You may not have this type of ruler. You can use your standard 6 x 12 ruler and align the 45 degree line at the bottom as shown below. Trim off the side.

Trim left side as shown. 45 degree line is running along the bottom edge of fabric strip

Then flip flop the ruler and cut the right side of the pieced triangle. Again, you are using the 45 degree line as your guide.

Flip flop the ruler and cut other side of triangle

Yikes, Those Stripes! pattern in my Etsy store has more info on strip sizes, etc. Here are four of those cuts together, getting ready to make an Hourglass Block. I will get two Hourglass blocks from each strip set.

Hourglass Block parts

Stitch pairs together as shown

And the last seams?

Sets of blocks with their last seam sewn

I was able to get 12 Hourglass Blocks from the fabric pairs. I don't want a small quilt, so I'm planning on making another 12 (or 13) blocks so I can have a good sized quilt center. These blocks will finish to about 8-1/2" (maybe 8-3/4"). Here are my first 12 blocks:

12 Hourglass Blocks using Warp and Weft

 I have made this pattern at least 8 times and you can see some of those quilts in my Etsy store with the Yikes! Those Stripes listing.